Sick and premature babies in Wales could be at greater risk than those elsewhere in the UK due to shortcomings in services, a nursing director says.

Transport of babies between Welsh hospitals is done on an ad hoc basis without dedicated teams and ambulances available in other parts of the UK.

Tina Donnelly, of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales, said it could delay babies getting specialist care.

The assembly government is to invest in providing transport teams.

Neonatal Charity BLISS claim Welsh neonatal services remain a 'poor relation' of those in England and Scotland.

Shortages of doctors and specialist nurses mean units sometimes have to send babies many miles away.

BLISS Chief Executive Andy Cole told BBC Wales' The Politics Show: "There just is no system in Wales to move babies safely between hospitals and there are in Scotland and in England particularly some very good systems."

We're not even providing the first level of training here for those nurses in Wales  Tina Donnelly, RCN Wales

But neonatal units in Wales do not have dedicated transport and ambulances available like elsewhere in the UK.

Ms Donnelly, director of RCN Wales, argues this could put babies here at greater risk.

She said: "Potentially, that's exactly what happens. If you know that you need higher specialist skills and you need to get a baby to that area very quickly and you can't because there's not the transport, the longer the baby is not with those clinical areas of expertise then potentially there is that baby being put at risk."

The Chief Nursing Officer for Wales said work is underway to implement improvements to care announced by the Health Minister last December.

Rosemary Kennedy said: "An extra £4m will be used over the next two years to support improvements.

"Transport teams will be commissioned as an additional resource to inpatient services, so that when babies can be moved to another unit the responsibility for organising the transfer does not fall on members of the clinical team.

"In the longer term, we will be increasing staffing levels, including one nurse for every baby for infants requiring intensive care."

Staff shortages

The RCN say Wales is short of 120 specialist nurses to meet today's, let alone growing, needs. Shortages are compounded by nurses leaving their units to travel to England for training.

Ms Donnelly argues we need a specialist neonatal nurse training school in Wales.

She said: "These are a very, very specialised group of nurses. We have to be able to recognise that the training that needs to be in put in place will be at different levels.

"We're not even providing the first level of training here for those nurses in Wales."

Several reasons are advanced by doctors and campaigners for the shortage of neonatal doctors. Some aspiring medics aren't attracted to the specialism's challenging, out of hours working pattern.

The European Working Time Directive limits the availability of those who do work at any single unit - not even providing the first level of training here for those nurses in Wales.

Immigration rules

It is claimed another reason is the UK Government's decision to prioritise the training of doctors from the UK.

Immigration rules have been changed to make it more difficult for those from outside the European Union to train as consultants here.

Mr Cole said: "Middle grade doctors, the registrars who are the consultants of tomorrow just are not there.

"And what that's meaning is that the senior consultants working now are having to cover additional shifts that junior staff would have normally been doing and that's putting a massive extra increase and impact on the workload of units that are already really stretched to breaking point."

A UK Border Agency spokesman said strengthening the points based system does not prevent overseas doctors the health service needs from coming to the UK.

The spokesman said: "Our Australian-style points based system means only those we need can come here to work.

"It is also flexible so that we can raise or lower the bar according to the needs of the labour market and the country as a whole."

(Source: BBC News)